The lecture will give an introduction to computer simulation methods for polyelectrolyte systems. Electrostatic interactions can either be taken into account through screened Coulomb interactions or by explicitly considering all counter and salt ions. The first has been extensively used to study the persistence length of semiflexible polyelectrolytes, while the latter is needed for all cases, where charge fluctuations play a role. The focus of the present lecture will be on exemplary systems, where counter and salt ions are explicitly considered. Besides introducing some basic concepts characteristic examples like swelling-deswelling of gels, pearl necklace structures, condensation of ions onto semiflexible objects as well as wrapping of charged colloids will be given.
